Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece

The Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece is an Old Calendarist Church which severed communion with the Church of Greece in 1935 over the acceptance of the Revised Julian Calendar. The adoption of the new calendar was viewed as an abrogation of the Orthodox Church's historical festal unity and a contradiction of Orthodox self-understanding by establishing common worship with non-Orthodox and furthering the goals of Ecumenism, while sacrificing festal unity among the Orthodox Churches. It is not in communion with any of the mainstream Orthodox churches, though it has enjoyed occasional support from mainstream churches which have retained the Julian Calendar. It also has support from some of the monks of Mount Athos, including the historical brotherhood of the Monastery of Esphigmenou. Its current primate is Archbishop Kallinikos (Sarantopoulos) of Athens and All Greece. The North American eparchy is known as the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of America.

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Organization

The Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece is made up of the Archdiocese of Athens, twelve Metropoleis in Greece, and three overseas Eparchies: America, Australia, and Europe. The Eparchy of America was granted the status of semi-autonomy in 2002, which included the establishment of an Eparchial Synod along with a local Ecclesiastical Tribunal, and is comprised of two Metropoleis (America and Toronto) and two Dioceses (Boston, and Etna and Portland), whose ruling hierarchs are suffragans of the Metropolitan of America based in New York City.